Illustrating the danger often faced in getting these manuscripts to the brothers is the experience of Brother Stanis Sikora, who was in charge of a group of Polish-speaking brothers in Saint-Denis, a suburb north of Paris. He relates:

“One morning I was taking a handwritten copy of ‘The Watchtower’ to another group when I saw a group of German soldiers ahead who were stopping everybody and searching them. I kept on my bicycle and decided to continue riding slowly on. I drew parallel with the first group of soldiers and they did nothing to stop me. I kept going very slowly and the soldiers at the barrier let me go through. I cycled on at the same slow speed until I could turn into another street, and then I speeded up considerably! Jehovah protects his work.”

Although this mountain pass delivery route was a means of getting The Watchtower into Alsace from France, later in the war publications that the French brothers did not have were delivered by this same route from Germany into France. However, things did not always go as expected. Brother Marcel Graft tells:

“One day we left at dawn with our wives to go up into the mountains. The weather was marvelous. But when we got to the top, not far from the border, we suddenly heard, ‘Hell Hitler!’ It was a German border guard, who asked: ‘Where are you heading?’

“I replied: ‘We are just hiking in the mountains.’

“He looked at us suspiciously and said: ‘Don’t you know you are very near the border?’

“‘Are we really?’ we answered, acting innocently.

“He added quickly: ‘If you intend to go across to the French side, I am warning you that our guns are loaded with real bullets!’

“We walked on in the direction of the chosen spot. Just as we got out of sight of the border guard, we found Brother Zinglé and his wife waiting for us. We greeted each other joyfully, exchanging a few words and also the publications we were carrying. Then, after a prayer, we parted company.”

When she was only 13 years old, Sister Simone Arnold was used to carry precious manuscripts, which she hid inside her girdle. Once, while she was accompanying Brother Adolphe Koehl, they experienced a close call, as Simone relates:

“A customs guard intercepted us and ordered us to follow him to the nearest farm. I was so scared that I literally had an attack of colic. Thanks to this, I was given a hot drink at the farm and allowed to go and lie down in the hay, still with my ‘Watchtower’ hidden. Brother Koehl and my mother were searched, but they had nothing on them, so we were simply accompanied to the nearest railway station.”

Surely these brothers and sisters who served as couriers showed great courage and love for Jehovah. But so did those who were involved in mimeographing the literature so that it could be distributed to the brothers. Under what circumstances was this done?

PREPARING THE LITERATURE FOR DISTRIBUTION

Brother Adolphe Koehl had a barbershop situated on the main street of Mulhouse, in Alsace, near the central station. The shop was located on the ground floor of a five-story apartment building, and he and Brother Graft each had apartments in this building above the shop. The mimeographing was done upstairs, even as soldiers and policemen were having their hair cut by Brother Koehl downstairs! There were some close calls, as Brother Graft describes:

“I remember when the Nazis confiscated the radios of all those who did not ‘collaborate’ with them. I had sold an old icebox to our milkman, and he said he would call to pick it up the next day. The following morning I was proofreading some stencils while my wife was busy in the kitchen. Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Since we were expecting the milkman, my wife opened the door. ‘Police!’ one of the men said. ‘You possess a radio and we have to confiscate it.’

“After my wife had recovered from her surprise, she called out: ‘Hurry up!’ Then she told the three policemen that I was sick and would get dressed as quickly as possible. This gave me time to gather up the stencils and put them under the bed. I had barely done this when they pushed my wife aside and entered the room, saying ‘Heil Hitler!’ When they left with our radio, we fairly exploded with joy and thanked Jehovah God for once more having protected us.”